Series: Ephesians
Title: Are You Possessed?
Text: Ephesians 2: 2
Date: August 22, 2013
Place: SGBC, New Jersey
Are you
possessed? The majority of sinners are
under the power of Satan. Our text is
found in the second half of
Ephesians 2: 2: Wherein in time past ye
walked…according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now
worketh in the children of disobedience:…
Title: Are
You Possessed?
Proposition: Men, as they are born into this world the first time, are
under the power of the devil, who keeps sinners living in disobedience to
God. That is what the text says.
Ephesians 2: 2: Wherein in time past ye
walked…according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now
worketh in the children of disobedience:…
God
says the children of disobedience, right now, have the spirit of the prince of
the power of the air, effectually working in them. Are you possessed of Satan?
It is a frightening thought but God says, every unregenerate sinner sitting
here now (or listening to this message) is walking “according to the power” of
the devil, “the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.”
Every
believer sitting here now (or listening to this message) in time past, walked
the same way—v2: Wherein in time past ye
walked…according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now
worketh in the children of disobedience:…
Divisions: 1)
Some of the ways Satan works; 2) The
advantage he has over sinners; 3) How he is overthrown
I. SOME OF THE WAYS SATAN WORKS
Worldly Influence
Satan
uses worldly influence, the course of this world—v2: in time past we walked according to the course of this world,
according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in
the children of disobedience:
The devils title “prince”
does not mean he has power over God. It
is by God’s permission only that the devil does anything—as we noted Sunday,
from the book of Job and from 1 Peter—“he seeketh whom he MAY devour.” (1 Pet
5: 8) God restrains what does not bring glory to his name.
The devil
had no power to make Christ do anything. Christ said, “Hereafter I will not
talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in
me.” (Jn 14: 30) The devils had to ask
Christ permission where they could go—Mt 8:31: So the devils besought [Christ],
saying, If thou cast us out, suffer us to go away into the herd of swine.” Only when Christ gave himself to be crucified
did the devil have permission to exercise power upon our Savior (Lu 22:
53) And now is Christ risen—Eph
1:21 Far above all principality, and
power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this
world, but also in that which is to come:
In the context, the title of “prince”—means the devil is
ruler—over unregenerate men throughout the world. In Revelation 12: 9-10 he is called, “the
great dragon…that old serpent,…the Devil,…Satan, which deceiveth the whole
world:…the accuser of our brethren…., which accused them before our God day and
night.” Satan, by God’s permission,
rules unregenerate sinners. By that, the devil rules “the course of this
[unregenerate] world.”
His name, “The prince of the power of the air” signifies his
power over sinners. The word is used in
this Epistle repeatedly to mean power superior to men.
Ephesians 6:12: For we wrestle not against flesh and
blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the
darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
The
devil is not omnipresent. He is not everywhere at once like God is. But the devil does not have to be everywhere
at once.
Illustration: “The spider weaves her web almost invisible in the air.
So the spider can catch her prey even when she is not present. Immediately, she
shows up. Well, the spider would be more
like Satan if she could get the flies to weave the web, in which she catches
more flies. The devil is able to persuade unregenerate sinners to weave
themselves into an unbreakable bond with him, and so using “the course of this
world” he entangles more sinners.
He
plays upon what sin has already done to us.
One of the great fears that sin produces in a sinner is a fear of not
being like others. Sin makes us envious of others. Sin makes us crave the applause of man. The devil plays upon that sinful fear and that
sinful envy using the course of this world.
Illustration: He uses worldly trends.
When you are young, trends—in music, in dress, in homes, cars,
decorations, in business, in politics, even in fleshly churches—all trends
seemed new. And they are new to the youngest generation. But after 30 or 40 years you realize nothing
is new. It is the same old trends being
marketed to the new generation. By this,
by the course of this world, the devil entangles the next generation of young
sinners, in the course, the flow, of this world so that they cannot get out. It
goes on one generation after another generation. And older sinners, though they have seen it
all, just stay in the course of this world.
Men approaching death with nothing better to occupy their minds than the
latest trend and course of this world. Folks say, “What are my friends doing—cooking,
I’ll occupy my time with that; motorcycles, I’ll buy a Harley; a bucket list, I’ll
go sky diving.”—course of this world
Personal Influence
The devil not only uses the course of this world, he
also personally steers individual sinners toward evil—v2:
The spirit that now worketh in the children
of disobedience.”
The devil and evil spirits are crafty—
Genesis 3: 1…the serpent was more
subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made.
Illustration: Without any
noticeable effort, we breathe air and live thereby. But more, unnoticeably, without raising the
slightest suspicion in us, evil spirits are able to influence a sinner like the
wind. In 2 Timothy 2:26 we read “of the snare of the devil, [whereby sinners]
are taken captive by him at his will.” A snare is not something that is set in
way so that men notice it. These subtle snares are by evil spirits
provoking “the desires of the flesh and of the mind.”
Application: I guarantee you evil spirits are whispering into the
minds of some one hearing this right this minute, saying, “Don’t believe that
there is a devil or that he has power over you.
Your will is free.” By that, the devil maintains power over your mind,
your lusts, your will, keeping you deceived, keeping you believing what he
wants you to believe—that you are free.
II. THAT LEADS US TO OUR SECOND POINT, THE
ADVANTAGE THE PRINCE OF THIS WORLD HAS OVER A SINNER.
We Are Easily Deceived
First
of all, Satan has an advantage over us because by the fall, sinners became the
most easily deceivable creatures that exist. By the fall we became haters of
God and lovers of that which is ungodly. When we lost the wisdom of God,
sinners became utter simpletons. Satan has that advantage.
Satan is the Master of Lying
In addition to our ignorance, Satan has
advantage over us because he is a master liar.
Christ said, “[the devil] abode not in the truth, because there is no
truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar,
and the father of it.” (Jn 8: 44)
The scriptures teach that Satan is able to transform
himself into an angel of light, likewise his ministers. (2 Cor 11: 13-15)
The devil works in the pulpit. False
teachers who are preaching that sinners have a spark of life that just needs to
fanned into a flame by the will of man; false teachers who are preaching that
God gives man a will then the man can choose Christ or reject him so that
ultimately their god’s salvation rests upon the sinners shoulder.
The
course of this world is all for religious tolerance to the god of their minds: the
god who loves all men one day and casts them into hell the next. That’s the god
natural man loves and so does the devil because that god is at the mercy of the
sinner—that god is the sinner.
Christ said as soon as sinners hear the truth,
“Satan cometh immediately, and taketh away the word that was sown in their
hearts.” (Mr 4: 15) He convinces men that God treats man unfairly,
unrighteously.
Illustration: “That is unfair! All men deserve a chance!” That is the
most common objection men use when they hear the truth that God elected a
people unto salvation in Christ before the foundation of the world. Satan keeps back the truth that all
are sinners, that election kept open the door of salvation that otherwise would
have been forever slammed shut when Adam sinned in the garden.
Example: From the beginning, in the garden, the devil’s first
words were crafted to make God appear as being unfair and unreasonable.
Genesis 2: 16: “And the LORD
God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely
eat:”
But the devil crafted his words just the opposite,
he said to Eve,
Genesis 3: 1:...Yea, hath God
said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
Satan
does the same in the minds of sinners soon as they hear the gospel of:
·
Divine Predestination—Romans 8: 29: “For whom
he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to
be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among
many brethren. 30: Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and
whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also
glorified. 31: What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who
can be against us?”—though men predestinate every day, the devil wants men to
call God unfair for doing so!
·
God’s sovereignty to work his will—Eph 1:11: “In
whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the
purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.”—The
devil wants sinners to think their will is free, but to condemn God whose will
is the only true free will!
·
Particular redemption—John 10: 15: “I lay
down my life for the sheep….26: But ye believe not, because ye are not of my
sheep, as I said unto you. 27: My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and
they follow me: 28: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never
perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.”—Every day fathers
provide life particularly for their sons and daughters. Yet Satan wants sinners
to condemn God for doing the same for his!
·
Irresistible, invincible grace—John 6: 44: “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath
sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day. 45: It is written in
the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath
heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me.”—Satan knows God will
not share his glory with another, so he persuades sinners to glory in bringing
themselves to God in order to keep them from submitting to the true and living
God and giving him all the glory!
Application: Sinner, you hear the gospel, but immediately, Satan enters telling you the lie you love. He
tells you your will is free, when Satan has you bound in chains of darkness.
Convinces
Sinners it is Wise to Disobey God
In addition, to our ignorance and Satan’s
craftiness, a third advantage the devil has is that he is able to convince
sinners that true wisdom is found by doing things God expressly forbids. God told Adam
Genesis 2:17:…in the day that
thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
Genesis 3: 4: And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye
shall not surely die: 5: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then
your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
Application:
Sinner, be honest. As you hear the truth right now, is there not
a voice inside of you objecting, telling you that you will become wiser by
being a man of the world, by experimenting with things of the world, by
befriending the world? God says just the opposite,
James 4:4: Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not
that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will
be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
God
says,
1 John 2:15: Love not the world, neither the things that
are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in
him. 16: For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of
the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
God says, of the believer, ‘Ye are not under the law
but under grace.” Acts 15: 1: “And
certain men which came down from Judaea taught the brethren, and said, Except
ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved.” Satan still
moves men to do the same thing today.
God
says, salvation “is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of
God that sheweth mercy.” (Rom 9: 16) The devil whispers to sinners, “It is of
your will, it is by your works.”
God
says of the believer in Christ, “Ye are complete in him.” Satan says, “But there are some things you
must do by your flesh to make yourself more holy, more sanctified, more
perfect.”
So the prince of the power of the air deceives
men into thinking his word is wiser than God’s word. That is how we fell into sin the first place.
III. HOW IS SATAN OVERTHROWN?
Isaiah 49:24: Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or
the lawful captive delivered? 25: But thus saith the LORD, Even the
captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall
be delivered: for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will
save thy children.
How
does Christ accomplish this deliverance of his people? In a three-fold way:
redemption, regeneration and resurrection.
Redemption
First,
Christ frees us from Satan by redemption.
Justice had to be paid for our sins against God. By making Adam transgress the law of God all
God’s elect became Satan’s lawful captives.
Our chains are as strong as God’s holy law which we violated in
Adam! How strong is that? The LORD told
Moses, “I will by no means clear the guilty.”
(Ex 34: 7) “The wages of sin is
death.” (Rom 6: 23) “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” (Eze 18: 4)
Therefore,
every sinner shall die—either in a Substitute or in their sins. But every sinner shall die. The holy justice
of God demands it. The reason God sent
his own Son is to pay those wages for his people—for those who by his grace
shall believe on Christ. He sent him to
pay what his people owed to his own justice—death—and thereby destroy the power
of the devil
1 John 3:8: He that committeth sin is of the devil; for
the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was
manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.
Hebrews
2:14: Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also
himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him
that had the power of death, that is, the devil; 15: And deliver them who
through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
Satan
tried to prevent Christ coming into the earth by destroying the children of
Israel over and again. He even tried to
destroy Christ as soon as he was born into the world, using Herod.
Revelation 12: 4:…the dragon stood before the woman which
was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.
Finally,
the devil thought he had Christ. Satan enflamed the lusts of men and “the
course of this world” nailed Christ to the cursed three. Satan watched as
Christ’s bore the sword, as his sheep were scattered and the devil thought he
had won the day. But Satan and his
wicked host were doing “what God before determined to be done.” (Acts 4: 28) For
it was written concerning Christ,
Zechariah 13:7: Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and
against the man that is my fellow, saith the LORD of hosts: smite the shepherd,
and the sheep shall be scattered: and I will turn mine hand upon the little
ones.
Jeremiah 31: 10: Hear the word of the LORD, O ye nations,
and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will
gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock. 11: For the LORD hath
redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he.
By
suffering faithfully unto death, Christ put away the sin of his people,
satisfied justice, brought in everlasting righteousness for his people, crushed
the serpents head and by his gospel, Christ is gathering out his sheep and by
his gospel he is keeping his sheep.
Regeneration
Secondly,
through the gospel Christ delivers his people from Satan’s power by
regeneration and continues to do so through the gospel. This is the very reason
Christ sends forth his messengers with the gospel, because his redeemed must be
born again and freed from Satan’s power unto God and kept. Christ told Paul he
was sending him forth to preach for that very reason:
Acts 26:18: To open their eyes, and to turn them from
darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive
forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith
that is in me.
Read
our text and we will see it,
Ephesians 2: 2: Wherein in time past ye walked according
to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air,
the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:… 4: But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love
wherewith he loved us, 5: Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us
together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) 6 And hath raised us up together, and made us
sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
·
The entrance of Christ the Life conquers
death.
·
The entrance of Christ the Light conquers darkness
·
The power of Christ conquers the prince of
the power of the air.
·
He binds the strongman and spoils his goods
Satan shall spew out floods of heresy trying
to carry away God's church with the flood,
Revelation 12: 15: And the serpent cast out of his mouth
water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of
the flood. [with the course of this world] 16: And the earth helped the woman,
and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon
cast out of his mouth.
Christ our Sovereign Governor even uses the reprobate of
the world to swallow up the flood, so the Lord’s church is protected (1 Cor.
11:19) The Lord Jesus promises, “I will
feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh; and they shall be drunken
with their own blood, as with sweet wine:” (Matt. 16:18)
Resurrection
Thirdly,
once and for all we shall be delivered by resurrection. God our Savior shall keep us, continue to
save us by the gospel, and until that last day when he raise us up
incorruptible.
Ephesians 1: 10:…in the dispensation of the fulness of
times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in
heaven, and which are on earth; even in him: 11: In whom also we have obtained
an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh
all things after the counsel of his own will: 12: That we should be to the
praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.
In that
day, the “accuser of the brethren” shall be finally, forever cast down into
hell with all those that follow him.
Application: Remember these three things. First, the way God’s people overcome is by
the blood of the Lamb—believe on Christ. Take refuge from the accuser in
Christ.
Secondly,
we overcome by the word of our testimony—by Christ the essential Word, by the
word of the scriptures, by hearkening to the preaching of the gospel. God
saves—in the beginning and throughout—by the gospel. Never forsake assembling with your brethren
to hear Christ high and lifted up in the gospel.
Thirdly, we overcome by not loving our lives
unto death. If any man love his life and
saves it by denying Christ and his gospel, Satan will conquer you. But if you lay down your life for Christ, lay
down anything in competition with Christ and his Gospel; through faith in
Christ we shall overcome Satan by Christ.
Read all three in Revelation 12: 11: And they overcame him by the blood
of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives
unto the death.
Amen!